The theme of this
past semester for me was: economics.
What is
economics and how does it affect us?
Yes, I know what
you are thinking: what is a philosophy major doing talking about economics?
Economics is the way that the world thinks, and so as a philosophy major, I
have to study and understand it. Furthermore, I will be questioning it. Why
economics, and what are its consequences?
Economics -- it
is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Literally. It is a test of numbers and efficiency.
Your goal is to maximize profit and minimize cost. It is good for business and
good for decision-making. It is a way of life. It is now, THE way of life. Why?
We live in a world
that constantly tells you, “You are MORE than just a number.” But then it
judges your success with scores and stats and salaries. You are just one out of
the seven billion people in the world. You are just one small piece of the
targeted audience of a particular product. You are a statistic on a graph that
shows how diverse your school or your company is. You are just another pawn in
someone else’s life, and they’re calculating their next best move. Millions of
people die every year; do you know any of their names? We are collateral damage
to the game of numbers. Yes, you are still just a number. Why?
We live in a
world that screams EQUALITY, but is that not just another equal sign in the
operation of making everyone the same? Is that really the goal we are striving
for? When equality turns into conformity and anyone different from you is forced
to stay in line. When was life as easy as an equation, where the answer can be
boxed in or defined?
You see,
economics is the way we think. It is inescapable. No matter where we go and
what we say, it will show itself again; it will pull us back into a world of
numbers. But have we just given up on thinking outside of the box or are we
blind to the four walls of this way of thinking and grown complacent where we
are? Have we accepted that we are just a number and that success is just how
many zeroes are on our paycheck or how many letters are behind our name? Have
we forgotten how to love one another like brothers and sisters, and instead resolved
to just locking ourselves up behind bars of comfort and elementary mathematics?
Charlie
